Using RealPlayer on XP

[W. eWatson]

I began using RealPlayer on my Win 7 with a flv download of 9 minutes.
It works fine. I then copied the flv file to my XP laptop, and installed
the newest RP. The video comes up fine, but there is no video shown on
the screen. The time slider shows that it thinks it's showing
something. Comments?

 

[Paul]

I began using RealPlayer on my Win 7 with a flv download of 9 minutes.
It works fine. I then copied the flv file to my XP laptop, and installed
the newest RP. The video comes up fine, but there is no video shown on
the screen. The time slider shows that it thinks it's showing
something. Comments?

Video needs several things -

1) Player program compatible with file type. Not likely to be
that gross a problem in this case. If you're using a fresh
release of your player, for both machines (i.e. not using
an ancient version on the WinXP machine), it should be working.

2) Codec available to decode content. Presumably, there'd be an
error message or dialog box, if something like that was amiss.

3) "Rendering surface" to output the video. This includes the
early "hardware overlay plane", as well as VMR7, VMR9
and other software methods (Enhanced Video Renderer).
Sometimes, a media player needs a tweak in that area, for a
"black" movie window, to contain the content. If you'd previously
been fooling around with the "hardware accelerated video" slider
for your video card, that might bust it, and require a correction.
That might happen, if you were attempting to work around
an Adobe Flash problem, and then later, shot yourself in the
foot when using some other (non-Adobe) player, that didn't
need or want the workaround. Adobe Flash has a tick box in its
config dialog, to disable hardware acceleration, and it would be
the preferred method. Then your video slider can be left
fully accelerated.

Paul

 

[W. eWatson]

Video needs several things -

1) Player program compatible with file type. Not likely to be
that gross a problem in this case. If you're using a fresh
release of your player, for both machines (i.e. not using
an ancient version on the WinXP machine), it should be working.

2) Codec available to decode content. Presumably, there'd be an
error message or dialog box, if something like that was amiss.

3) "Rendering surface" to output the video. This includes the
early "hardware overlay plane", as well as VMR7, VMR9
and other software methods (Enhanced Video Renderer).
Sometimes, a media player needs a tweak in that area, for a
"black" movie window, to contain the content. If you'd previously
been fooling around with the "hardware accelerated video" slider
for your video card, that might bust it, and require a correction.
That might happen, if you were attempting to work around
an Adobe Flash problem, and then later, shot yourself in the
foot when using some other (non-Adobe) player, that didn't
need or want the workaround. Adobe Flash has a tick box in its
config dialog, to disable hardware acceleration, and it would be
the preferred method. Then your video slider can be left
fully accelerated.

Paul

I got the video off of YouTube. It's titled "The Secret Life of
Machines--The Internal Combustion Machine--Part 1. Maybe I need to run
it through a converter?

My laptop was purchased in Sept. 2007. Don't see any error messages.

 

[Paul]

I got the video off of YouTube. It's titled "The Secret Life of
Machines--The Internal Combustion Machine--Part 1. Maybe I need to run
it through a converter?

My laptop was purchased in Sept. 2007. Don't see any error messages.

I viewed the movie from Youtube and ended up with a 56,840,335 byte file.
Inside the file, I see "FLV" as the first three letters.

Using Wikipedia, I see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flv

"Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video
over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–10."

A container format, means files with the same extension (.flv) can
contain different video and audio CODECs.

I tried to load it into the standalone Flash Player, and the screen
remained blank. No sign it even attempted to play it, and no error
messages (so it's not a video rendering surface problem - no symptoms
of that). I next tried GSpot, which also refused to touch it, as
unsupported. GSpot hasn't been updated in a while, so this is
not surprising.

I fired up a Ubuntu Linux virtual machine, transferred the file over
to it, and loaded it into Totem movie player. Both video and audio
play. The properties fields there say:

"Video Audio
----- -----
Dimension 544x352 Sample Rate 44100 Hz
Codec H.264/AVC Video Codec MPEG-4 AAC audio "

All I can find in a quick search, is the suggestion to play the
movie in something other than an Adobe product!

Guess I'm not much of a movie buff. I don't understand why I can view
the movie via Youtube in a browser (perhaps SWF), and yet end up with
an FLV on disk, which can't be played without a lot of extra work. At
first, I thought maybe the content was protected, but then, why
was Linux (Totem) able to play it ? Totem has access to the appropriate
CODECs for the content inside the container. There are also third
party Windows tools, using the same kind of CODECs. The implication is,
there is a trivial difference (like something in the file header),
that is preventing this from working. But I don't know enough about
the format, to say exactly what that would be.

Sure, a quick search (or even that Wikipedia article) is going to find
you some software to download, but it doesn't answer the question why
the file in the browser cache, isn't directly re-usable.

Paul

 

[W. eWatson]

I viewed the movie from Youtube and ended up with a 56,840,335 byte file.
Inside the file, I see "FLV" as the first three letters.

Using Wikipedia, I see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flv

"Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver video
over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player versions 6–10."

A container format, means files with the same extension (.flv) can
contain different video and audio CODECs.

I tried to load it into the standalone Flash Player, and the screen
remained blank. No sign it even attempted to play it, and no error
messages (so it's not a video rendering surface problem - no symptoms
of that). I next tried GSpot, which also refused to touch it, as
unsupported. GSpot hasn't been updated in a while, so this is
not surprising.

I fired up a Ubuntu Linux virtual machine, transferred the file over
to it, and loaded it into Totem movie player. Both video and audio
play. The properties fields there say:

"Video Audio
----- -----
Dimension 544x352 Sample Rate 44100 Hz
Codec H.264/AVC Video Codec MPEG-4 AAC audio "

All I can find in a quick search, is the suggestion to play the
movie in something other than an Adobe product!

Guess I'm not much of a movie buff. I don't understand why I can view
the movie via Youtube in a browser (perhaps SWF), and yet end up with
an FLV on disk, which can't be played without a lot of extra work. At
first, I thought maybe the content was protected, but then, why
was Linux (Totem) able to play it ? Totem has access to the appropriate
CODECs for the content inside the container. There are also third
party Windows tools, using the same kind of CODECs. The implication is,
there is a trivial difference (like something in the file header),
that is preventing this from working. But I don't know enough about
the format, to say exactly what that would be.

Sure, a quick search (or even that Wikipedia article) is going to find
you some software to download, but it doesn't answer the question why
the file in the browser cache, isn't directly re-usable.

Paul

OK, thanks. It would really be helpful to have the video, in working
order on my XP PC. I plan to use it in a talk. I think I'll head for
the Video Help forum. It's often very good on sticky video issues.

How did you like the video? It gets its point across the gasoline has
an enormous amount of energy over other fuels and combustible products.

 

[Paul]

How did you like the video? It gets its point across the gasoline has
an enormous amount of energy over other fuels and combustible products.

I have a fair amount of respect, for things that explode. I was a
kid once, too.

Paul

 

[W. eWatson]

I have a fair amount of respect, for things that explode. I was a
kid once, too.

Paul

Video Help suggested VLC media player. It works fine. Not a lot of Real
Player supporters there.

 

[Roy]

Video Help suggested VLC media player. It works fine. Not a lot of Real
Player supporters there.

==
Real Player works fine for me...have used it for years. Some versions
were flawed but the latest one works well.
VLC works too.
==

 

[Bob CP]

==
Real Player works fine for me...have used it for years. Some versions
were flawed but the latest one works well.
VLC works too.
==

I like Realplayer for streaming audio. Unlike some others, if I hit
pause, RP will store up to an hour's playing. Makes it easy to skip
through commercials or passages that are uninteresting.

 

[Fast Eddy]

SOLUTION -
I downloaded and installed the latest Apple QuickTime and Real Player video reappeared. Works 100%